Triplets

Two sets of such calves born on Bowdle-area farms BY RUSS KEEN rkeen@aberdeennews.com Two sets of triplet calves arrived this spring on farms in the Bowdle area, twice beating the odds of one in 105,000. Those are the chances, according to a bulletin published by Oklahoma State University's ag sciences department. Even more remarkable, all six of the little critters near Bowdle are female. Four possibilities exist for triplets: three bulls, three heifers, two bulls and one heifer or two heifers and one bull.

Triplet brothers Carrold and Claude Wahl of Aberdeen and Collin Wahl of Fargo, N.D., will celebrate their 70th birthday on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Greetings may be sent to Carrold at 922 S. Third St. and to Claude at 1312 S. First St., both in Aberdeen, SD 57401. Greetings may be sent to Collin at 3111 N. Broadway, Apt. 107A, Fargo, ND 58102.

MANHATTAN, Mont. (AP) - Cow-a-bunga! A black Angus cow in Montana is the proud mother of triplet calves. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports Cow No. 403 at Lance and Erika Chaney's ranch near Manhattan gave birth Monday to three, 40-pound calves. The two females and male are all healthy. Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine says the odds of a beef cow having triplets are one in 105,000 births, with longer odds that all three survive. And Lance Chaney says the cow is nursing all of them, which is rare.

ELKHART, Ill. (AP) - No kidding: Gillette Ransom is on her way to becoming America's first goat baroness. All right, it's still early days out on a small corner of her family's ancestral lands, blessed with the fecund soil the glaciers left behind in Elkhart. Ransom and her farm business partner, Brett Conrady, only have 25 head of goats after a year of diligent ranching, but that's because they've already sold some, and they do have seven nannies (female goats) expecting more kids.

WETONKA - Farmer/rancher Bryan Wagner suspected something was unusual when a 5-year-old cow in his herd of about 200 went into labor. It seemed to be having trouble, so Wagner decided to assist. He delivered one calf and discovered there was another in the womb. That's not unusual. Of the 50 or so cows that have calved so far on the Wagner farm, five have given birth to twins. After delivering the second calf, Wagner realized a third one was ready to face the world, too. That's unusual.

Perhaps, you think you read this story before, but no - it happened again. Could it be the water? How else could one explain two sets of triplets in rural Bowdle in two months? This time the multiples were born to Jeremy and Nora Hoffman. The couple was shocked to find triplet heifer calves, the same as were born at Beitelspacher Ranch just last month. Remember that triplets of the same sex only happen once in every 700,000 births. Sierra, the couple's daughter, 5, had just said to her mom, ?

Jen, Kim, and Heather Bourdon did everything together growing up, and to Presentation College they are indeed Saints. The senior triplets from Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, were involved in a variety of sports while growing up. The trio played everything from softball to badminton. ?We were always involved in sports,? Kim said. ?We went from one sport to the next and from season to season. We were always doing something and we always had fun doing it. So it kept us out of a lot of trouble.

Kristi Ferguson really should play the lottery. The odds seem to be in her favor. Ferguson and her fiance, Jace Birkeland, became the parents of identical triplet boys on June 27. Then, in mid-March, one of Ferguson's cows gave birth to triplet bull calves. Identical triplet babies in both humans and cows are a rare phenomenon. They appear only once in every 200 million births in humans. Triplets occur only once in every 105,000 births in cows (although only 25 percent survive). The odds of triplet calves being the same gender are estimated at only one out of every 700,000, according to Washington State University's Veterinary School.

Sunday morning, April 3, at 5 a.m., doing the usual walk through the lambing barn, I noticed a mother ewe with a pair of newborn lambs. After I bedded down her individual pen, I turned to retrieve the new born twins and to my astonishment, there were triplets, all singing a very familiar tune I'd heard many times before Where's the food? After further investigation, I knew why the triplets were singing that tune, mama had no milk. I rushed into the house and mixed up a quart of milk replacer and headed back to the barn and sat on an upside down 5-gal.

If you were to win this jackpot, let's just say you would have beaten 1 in 700,000 odds. Maybe the folks at Beitelspacher Ranch should buy some lottery tickets. Their living triplet calves beat not only the odds of having living triplets (1 of every 107,000 births), but also the odds of having triplets all the same sex (1 in 700,000). The three 50-lb. Simmental /Angus Cross heifers were born on March 19. All the calves were facing correctly and could have possibly been born on their own, but two were assisted.

ELKHART, Ill. (AP) - No kidding: Gillette Ransom is on her way to becoming America's first goat baroness. All right, it's still early days out on a small corner of her family's ancestral lands, blessed with the fecund soil the glaciers left behind in Elkhart. Ransom and her farm business partner, Brett Conrady, only have 25 head of goats after a year of diligent ranching, but that's because they've already sold some, and they do have seven nannies (female goats) expecting more kids.

MANHATTAN, Mont. (AP) - Cow-a-bunga! A black Angus cow in Montana is the proud mother of triplet calves. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports Cow No. 403 at Lance and Erika Chaney's ranch near Manhattan gave birth Monday to three, 40-pound calves. The two females and male are all healthy. Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine says the odds of a beef cow having triplets are one in 105,000 births, with longer odds that all three survive. And Lance Chaney says the cow is nursing all of them, which is rare.

Sunday morning, April 3, at 5 a.m., doing the usual walk through the lambing barn, I noticed a mother ewe with a pair of newborn lambs. After I bedded down her individual pen, I turned to retrieve the new born twins and to my astonishment, there were triplets, all singing a very familiar tune I'd heard many times before Where's the food? After further investigation, I knew why the triplets were singing that tune, mama had no milk. I rushed into the house and mixed up a quart of milk replacer and headed back to the barn and sat on an upside down 5-gal.

Kristi Ferguson really should play the lottery. The odds seem to be in her favor. Ferguson and her fiance, Jace Birkeland, became the parents of identical triplet boys on June 27. Then, in mid-March, one of Ferguson's cows gave birth to triplet bull calves. Identical triplet babies in both humans and cows are a rare phenomenon. They appear only once in every 200 million births in humans. Triplets occur only once in every 105,000 births in cows (although only 25 percent survive). The odds of triplet calves being the same gender are estimated at only one out of every 700,000, according to Washington State University's Veterinary School.

Two sets of such calves born on Bowdle-area farms BY RUSS KEEN rkeen@aberdeennews.com Two sets of triplet calves arrived this spring on farms in the Bowdle area, twice beating the odds of one in 105,000. Those are the chances, according to a bulletin published by Oklahoma State University's ag sciences department. Even more remarkable, all six of the little critters near Bowdle are female. Four possibilities exist for triplets: three bulls, three heifers, two bulls and one heifer or two heifers and one bull.

Perhaps, you think you read this story before, but no - it happened again. Could it be the water? How else could one explain two sets of triplets in rural Bowdle in two months? This time the multiples were born to Jeremy and Nora Hoffman. The couple was shocked to find triplet heifer calves, the same as were born at Beitelspacher Ranch just last month. Remember that triplets of the same sex only happen once in every 700,000 births. Sierra, the couple's daughter, 5, had just said to her mom, ?

If you were to win this jackpot, let's just say you would have beaten 1 in 700,000 odds. Maybe the folks at Beitelspacher Ranch should buy some lottery tickets. Their living triplet calves beat not only the odds of having living triplets (1 of every 107,000 births), but also the odds of having triplets all the same sex (1 in 700,000). The three 50-lb. Simmental /Angus Cross heifers were born on March 19. All the calves were facing correctly and could have possibly been born on their own, but two were assisted.

Triplet brothers Carrold and Claude Wahl of Aberdeen and Collin Wahl of Fargo, N.D., will celebrate their 70th birthday on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Greetings may be sent to Carrold at 922 S. Third St. and to Claude at 1312 S. First St., both in Aberdeen, SD 57401. Greetings may be sent to Collin at 3111 N. Broadway, Apt. 107A, Fargo, ND 58102.

Good things have come in threes at the Jons Dairy Farm, where triplet calves born Sept. 9 are healthy and thriving. The calves were born two days before the due date of their mother, a 4-year-old in her third lactation whose previous calvings were singles. She was artificially inseminated to 7H08173 TANNER, a super sampler from Select Sires, according to Heather Jons. The first calf was pulled by hand, the second was pulled using a calf puller, and the third was pulled by hand. The calves weighed about 60 pounds each, and were only a little bit smaller than a normal-size single calf.

From Rapid City Journal and American News Staff Reports | June 9, 2008

Triplets who played their college ball in Aberdeen have struck gold in Rapid City. Until the end of the 2007 spring seasons, Canadian sisters Jennifer, Heather and Kim Bourdon of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, were four-year mainstays in Presentation College athletics. Now, the Bourdons have made the roster for the Black Hills Gold all-star fast pitch softball team, who will play the U.S. Olympic team later this summer. Jennifer made the 18-player as an outfielder and shortstop while sisters Heather (catcher-third base)